1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing system configured to execute processing according to a process definition file which defines reading processing and transmission processing. In addition, the present invention relates to a control method for the image processing apparatus and the image processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, conventional image processing apparatuses including a reading function for reading an image of a document and generating image data of the read document image and a transmission function for transmitting the generated image data have been widely used. In utilizing such image processing apparatuses, a user designates a reading parameter to be used as a processing setting for reading an image of a document and also designates a transmission protocol and a transmission destination to be used as a processing setting for transmitting the generated image data. The image processing apparatus reads an image of a document and transmits the generated image data in accordance with the designations made by the user.
In executing processes using a combination of a plurality of functions as described above, it is necessary for a user to designate a large number of parameters. Accordingly, it is necessary for the user to execute complicated operations.
In order to solve the above-described problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-287860 discusses a method, when a plurality of services are performed in cooperation with one another, for processing a document according to a previously generated instruction which defines a plurality of processes to be executed.
According to the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-287860, it is necessary for a user only to issue an instruction to repeat a previously generated instruction to serially execute the processes according to the earlier instruction. Accordingly, it is not necessary for the user to perform complicated operations repeatedly.
In the conventional method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-287860, for example, in executing an instruction described therein, a user can only select one instruction and instruct execution of that selected one instruction.
More specifically, the conventional method receives the user selection of one instruction only and, if the user has instructed the execution of the selected one instruction, then executes processing according to a definition included in the selected one instruction.
However, if it is allowed for a user to select only one instruction as described above, the following problem may arise.
More specifically, if a user desires to execute more than one instruction, it is necessary for the user to select a first instruction and the execution of the first instruction and after the processing according to the first instruction is completed then to select a second instruction and the execution of the second instruction. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary for the user to perform complicated operations.
Furthermore, if reading processing for reading an image of a document is defined in an instruction, the above-described problem may become more serious. If each instruction defines reading processing, the above-described conventional method executes the reading processing every time an instruction is executed. Accordingly, in executing a plurality of instructions, the above-described conventional method necessarily executes reading processing a plurality of times.
However, if the reading processing defined in the plurality of instructions is the same, then the above-described conventional method will generate a plurality of pieces of the same image data by executing the same reading processing according to the description in each instruction.
Accordingly, the above-described conventional method also executes unnecessary operations by executing the reading processing a large number of times to generate the same image data.